Cucumber Lemonade
This is my favorite new drink. I love making big pitchers for my friends and sitting out in the sun (on the few nice days we’ve had so far). It’s refreshing and easy to make in large batches.
Ingredients:
Sugar
Water
1 Cucumber
1 cup lemon juice
1. Make a simple syrup. Boil together equal parts sugar and water for a couple minutes, then pour in a container and cool in the fridge. For this recipe, I would use 1 cup of each. You can add sugar at the end and stir it together, but I think the syrup makes it much sweeter.
2. Chop up the cucumber, and squeeze a cup of lemon juice. You can use the little bottles of lemon juice if you don’t want to squeeze the lemons yourself, but make sure to use a lot less, or the lemonade will be too sour.
3. Put the cucumber and lemon in a food processor (a blender would work too), and puree.
4. Strain the juice out of the mixture. You can do this with a strainer; although I have found that in desperate times, coffee filters are a messy but adequate replacement.
5. Pour the strained juice and syrup into a pitcher, add water and ice, and you’re done! If you want to be fancy, or if you really love cucumbers like I do, you can plop in some cucumber slices as well.
Delicious Quinoa
After many courageous attempts, my roommate and I have decided that this is our favorite way of eating quinoa. If you have never made quinoa or are unfamiliar with it, quinoa is a grain that becomes fluffed up and crunchy when cooked.
Ingredients:
1 cup of quinoa
2 tomatoes
1 can of black beans
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder (optional)
Parsley (optional)
1. Bring quinoa to a boil in 1½ cups of water. When it starts to boil, turn the heat down, cover the pot, and let the quinoa simmer until all of the water has evaporated. Then let the quinoa cool.
2. Chop the tomatoes, and add them to the cooled off quinoa, along with the black beans. At this point, you can add basically anything. I find that vegetables and beans taste the best, but don’t be afraid to experiment with whatever you have in the kitchen.
3. Stir together olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley together, and pour over the quinoa. You can try out some different spices in the dressing. If you like spicy foods, cayenne pepper is a great addition.
Colorful Chicken Kabobs
You can’t go wrong with barbecue in the summer. Chicken Kabobs are so delicious, and nothing is more relaxing than lounging outside with your crew as the mouthwatering smell of barbecue drifts into the air.
Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast
Green, red, and yellow bell peppers
Red onions
Marinade of your choice
A bunch of skewers
1. Chop the onions, bell peppers, and chicken into small chunks (~1 inch).
2. Prepare a marinade for the chicken in a large bowl. Teriyaki sauce is great for kabobs, but I’ve also recently been preparing my chicken with garlic powder, chili powder, and olive oil, adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. Marinade the chicken chunks in the bowl.
4. Here is the optional but very fun part. My best friends and I like to sit around a table and make our own personalized kabobs, so everyone gets exactly what they want. For example, I prefer mostly bell peppers, and I like to make mine in patterns (I’m weird like that). This process also allows for some chat time with your girls, making this recipe a cool project.
5. After the kabobs are all ready, barbecue away! Don’t forget to turn the skewers every once in a while. The peppers and onions will be fine at any temperature, but make sure to keep an eye on the chicken.
(Photo credit: J J and Nathalie Babineau-Griffiths)